Nov. 4 -Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), gave an interview to Xinhua on Nov. 3 which lavishes praise on China’s role in both alleviating hunger and advancing agricultural science. “China has made great achievements in curbing hunger and increasing food security, both domestically and globally, since the launch of its reform and opening-up 40 years ago,” Graziano da Silva told Xinhua.
Most interesting, Graziano da Silva totally debunks the 1995 book by Lester Brown titled {Who Will Feed China? Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet}, one of the major propaganda tools for the depopulation movement. “But China did succeed,” Graziano da Silva said. China lifted 80 million people out of hunger in what Graziano da Silva called “the most successful program that I know of in the world.”
Xinhua quotes the FAO 2018 World Food Security report, which states that the world produces enough food to feed everyone, yet one in nine people goes hungry and 821 million people are chronically undernourished. In 2007 over 15% of the chronically undernourished were in China, but that is now down to 9%. Graziano da Silva said this is “closely related to what China is doing to eradicate poverty, especially in rural areas.”
Xinhua reports that Graziano da Silva designed and implemented a Zero Hunger program that lifted 28 million people out of poverty in 10 years in his native Brazil, and that China’s program using reforestation to combat poverty along the Mongolian desert became “an example for my country.”
Graziano da Silva said China is helping the FAO with its South-South cooperation programs in Africa, including Chinese scientists helping to develop drought-resistant varieties of rice. He notes that in 2006, China was the first country to establish a strategic alliance with the FAO on South-South cooperation, and today more than 1,000 Chinese experts and technicians have supported 37 countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean on agricultural issues.
On the Belt and Road, Graziano da Silva said: “The BRI is providing support for countries such as Malawi, for example, they produce enough food, but they lose half of it due to lack of storage. So we believe that infrastructure (projects) that are part of the BRI can help a great deal to improve food security and reduce food loss and waste, which in turn will also reduce pressure on natural resources.”
Graziano da Silva announced on Nov. 2 that the FAO will establish an International Center of Excellence for Agriculture Innovation and Rural Development in Beijing, aimed at helping to reach the FAO’s Zero Hunger goal by 2030.
Nov. 2, 2018 -In a major address to the 22nd World Russian Peoples Council, organized under the aegis of the Russian Orthodox Church for the past 25 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the basis for peaceful global coexistence among nations and cultures–perhaps providing a preview of topics that will also be on the table in his upcoming meeting with President Trump on Nov. 11. He said mankind must organize its affairs so that each “unique civilization supplements and enriches the others,” specifying the role to be played by Russia, “India, China, Western Europe, America and many others.”
Putin began by praising the World Russian Peoples Council: “You never set narrow ethnic or other limits and are always open for an interethnic, intercultural and interfaith dialogue. These traditions–the traditions of mutual understanding–have always strengthened our large family, the people of Russia.” He counterposed such an apporach to the fact that “efforts are being taken today to `reformat’ the world and destroy the traditional values and the cultural and historical spaces that have been forming for centuries. The goal is to create various bleak `protectorates,’ because it is easier to rule peoples who are disconnected, have no national memory and are turned into simple vassals, and to use them as bargaining chips. Crude nationalism and anti-Russian sentiments are also used.”
Putin then presented his view of the alternative: “These issues are undoubtedly very relevant today. It is now being decided how the world will look in the future, in the coming decades. Will this be a world of monologue and the rule of force, or a world of dialogue and mutual respect? How well will technology combine with ethical and moral values? There are more questions than answers so far. But there is one thing I am certain about: the voice of Russia will resound with dignity and confidence in the future world.
“It is defined by both our tradition and internal spiritual culture, our identity and finally, by the history of our country as an authentic civilization, a unique one, but one which does not assertively and aggressively claim its exceptionalism. Because it is impossible to imagine the history of humanity without such unique civilizations as India, China, Western Europe, America and many others. It is really a multifaceted complexity where each facet supplements and enriches the others.”
Aug. 21 –The ultra-high voltage (UHV) cable lines China’s State Grid company and local Brazilian companies such as Tractebel are now putting up to transmit electricity from the huge Belo Monte dam on the Brazilian-Bolivian border in the Amazon region down to power-short southeastern city of Rio de Janeiro, is a great step forward for the Belt and Road Initative in Ibero-America, the Portuguese-language edition of {People’s Daily} reported yesterday.
The transmission lines, which will provide power to Rio de Janeiro and vicinity, are the second phase of the Belo Monte project which radical environmentalists did everything in their power to stop. China’s Ambassador to Brazil Li Jinzhang told {People’s Daily} that China’s UHV technology is “a calling card of `Made in China’…. This is the first time that China applies UHV technology abroad. Its construction inaugurates a new historic stage, which marks the recognition by other countries of UHV technology and other technologies created in China. Through the Belo Monte project, Brazil’s government, businesses and local population expressed the will and interest in deepening mutually beneficial cooperation which is advantageous to all.”
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu has called China’s development of UHV technology a “Sputnik moment” for the U.S., the {Financial Times} reported on June 6, 2018. “China has the best transmission lines in terms of the highest voltage and lowest loss. They can transmit electricity over 2,000km and lose only 7% of the energy. If we transmitted over 200km we would lose more than that,” Chu stated.
Oct.26, 2018 -Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a three-day visit to Beijing on Thursday for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first such summit since 2011. The main
goal of the visit is to transform relations from that of competition to cooperation, especially concerning Japanese cooperation in the Belt and Road Inititive. Some 500 Japanese businessmen accompanied Abe on his visit.
Abe has held substantive meetings with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, the chair of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Li Zhanshu, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Abe’s repeated message, as he emphasized in his joint press conference with Prime Minister Li, was that Japanese-Chinese relations have entered a new phase, moving “from competition to cooperation…. We want to expand our relationship significantly. We are
neighbors. We are partners cooperating with each other. We have to avoid becoming a threat to each other.”
President Xi opened his talks with Abe, noting that “as the international situation changes, China and Japan are becoming increasingly dependent on one another. Our countries also have a growing number of common interests and concerns on a multilateral level. The rapid changes in the world are providing China and Japan with opportunities for more in-depth cooperation.”
Reflecting on the historical relations between the two countries, Xi added that “China and Japan have interacted for more than 2,000 years. The people of our countries have long been
learning from each other and achieving developments. In that long history, there were deplorable times and the Chinese people suffered tremendously.”
Abe reiterated to Xi his above message, that his visit is “an opportunity to elevate the Japan-China relationship to a new phase from competition to cooperation…. [W]e want to work with China for the peace and stability of the world, and the region, and that’s what countries around the world expect of us.”
{Asahi Shimbun} reported that Li and Abe confirmed that the two countries will jointly promote infrastructure projects led by Japanese and Chinese private companies in third countries. Chinese state radio reported that Li welcomed Japan to actively take part in China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, and in China’s reforms and the opening up of its economy,
Speaking on the sidelines of an economic forum of 1,400 business and government official on Friday, Abe pointed out that “Infrastructure projects in Asia are expected to be worth 1.7 trillion dollars annually by 2030. It won’t be easy for companies in one country to tackle this demand and overcome the accompanying challenges.” He stressed that projects led by
Japanese and Chinese firms in other countries must follow international standards.
All kinds of agreements were signed, between the leaders and between Chinese and Japanese businessmen. A key one is that annual high-level dialogues that have been suspended for years will be reestablished (e.g. between Foreign Ministers). Others reportedly include agreements to work together on a total of 52 joint projects, including urban development in a special economic zone in eastern Thailand and establishing a new fund with banks and securities firms; to accelerate talks on jointly developing gas fields in the East China Sea; and a decision to revive a 30 billion dollar currency swap pact dropped in 2013.
Aug. 13, 2018 –The Caspian Sea agreement signed this weekend by Presidents of the five countries on its border – Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan – will enhance the region’s role in the Belt and Road Initiative. Along with the convention which also bans military presence of any outside power, effectively ruling out leasing a military base to a foreign power, several other documents include protocols on cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, and an agreement to avoid incidents in the Caspian Sea. The five presidents also signed agreements on trade and economic cooperation, and an agreement on cooperation in transportation.
Underscoring the need to develop transportation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address, “Transport interconnection is one of the key factors for securing sustainable growth and strengthening our countries’ cooperation,” explaining that Russia is implementing a strategy for the development of seaports in the Caspian Basin till 2030, including the building of a deep-water port near Kaspiysk by 2025. The port will be capable of handling heavy-duty vessels with a payload of 15,000-25,000 tons.
Kaspiysk is the port directly across the sea from Kuryk port in Kazakhstan. Its development as a deep-sea port implies the development of an east-west corridor in the contexts of the Belt and Road Initiative. Furthermore, developing a port for ships of 15,000 to 25,000 tons is also significant because the largest ships are no more than 10,000 tons and conform to the river-sea class capable of entering the Volga River and the broader Russian river and canal network.
On Oct. 13, the Schiller Institute and INSAN for Human Rights and Peace organized a joint seminar in Berlin on “A Future for Yemen: Instead of Geopolitical Destruction — A New Paradigm for Reconstruction and Development with the New Silk Road for Southwest Asia and Africa.” Sixty people attended the half-day event, both German contacts and members, and Yemeni INSAN activists, among them many youth. It was a truly moving event, as the horror and humanitarian disaster was contrasted with the beautiful vision of reconstruction as worked out in Operation Felix by Hussein Askary, who attended as a speaker. His remarks gave people a true spark of the sublime — that it is possible to save humanity in the current breakdown of the old, dying global system and to take the future into one’s own hands.
After a short greeting by Elke Fimmen, a Schiller Institute chorus of Berlin and Dresden members sang {Dona Nobis Pacem}, to great effect on the audience. Elke then read Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s special greeting to the conference; followed by Aiman Al Mansour, who introduced the aim of his organization INSAN — INSAN means human being — and appealed to everybody to open their heart and soul, and consider mankind as a whole, giving the victims of the present genocide in Yemen a voice.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche called the events in Yemen a crime against humanity, with the Western governments and media being accomplices in it. When people said, after the Nazi Holocaust, that they did not know about it, today nobody can claim he or she did not know what is going on, even with the scarce reports. With 18 million of Yemen’s 29 million people threatened by famine, among them millions of children, Western governments continue to deliver weapons to Saudi Arabia. Now, with the likely murder of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. senators talk about the Magnitsky Act. “But for each child dying of hunger in Yemen the Magnitsky Act must be applied!” Nevertheless, there is reason for optimism, because China’s Belt and Road policy has changed the strategic situation already, and this means also a concrete perspective for the reconstruction of Yemen in the near future, as can be seen in Syria and the Horn of Africa. She ended by saying, “Let us be warrior-angels in Friedrich Schiller’s sense and fight for a better order for all of humanity, which is in cohesion with our true identity as one mankind. Nobody in this world is secure, unless the people of Yemen are not secure and cannot realize their potential for happiness.”
After this introduction, in the first xsession, presentations were given by representatives of INSAN:
On the consequences of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen (Abdullatif ElWashali); a very dramatic picture by psychiatrist Dr. Hussein Al-Warith on the psychology of war trauma among children in Yemen and the difficulties to deal with it. How can these children contribute to rebuild their country in the future? Finally, Mohammad Abo Taleb spoke on the consequences of the blockade. Engeline Kramer, a long-time peace activist with a personal connection to Yemeni students, blasted the German government’s non-position on this horrible war.
The first part of the seminar was ended with a discussion and a short video on the school bus massacre of 40 school children on Aug. 9, by a missile built by Lockheed Martin and launched by the Saudi “coalition.”
After the break, Elke Fimmen spoke on the strategic situation and the need to replace the bankrupt old order with a new paradigm, asking the question “Is mankind morally fit to survive?” She attacked today’s culture of death, from which we have to free ourselves and build a beautiful future.
After an overview video on the damage done in Yemen, Hussein Askary then presented Operation Felix, the reconstruction plan for Yemen in the context of the New Silk Road. He first described (as in his June 30-July 1 Schiller Institute conference speech in Bad Soden) the history of why Yemen was the poorest country in the region all along, and said that, before the war, nothing had been invested into the real economy and agriculture in decades, due to the IMF/World Bank policy, and the idea that earning money from oil exports would be enough.
So, when the war started, the country was basically lost.
Askary then presented Yemen’s position on the crossroads of the Belt and Road and showed the plans for the main development corridor projects for Yemen, especially the North-South railroad from Saa’da to Aden, which, concerning the very mountainous territory, is comparable to the one in Ethiopia, which China is building and plans to complete within four years. He stressed that it will be mostly up to the intellectuals and to the youth — who make up 50% of the present Yemeni population — half of them under 18 years old! –to build the country’s future and learn from the lessons of the past.
Askary’s appeal to have a clear vision for the future, so you can fight for it, clearly struck a response with those attending. One of the points made in the discussion was the need to make this project known to a broader population in Yemen, to give people a vision in this horrible situation, which can remoralize them; there was also discussion on how to sustain such a program in the longer run, so that one is not dependent on the outside. All of this led to an extremely fruitful and frank discussion. People expressed afterwards their gratitude for the seminar. Especially some of the young people were visibly excited about the perspective that Askary presented.
Oct. 22, 2018 –Portugal and China are finishing details a Memorandum of Understanding on Portugal’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative initiated by China, focused on investment in infrastructure, Portugal’s Foreign Affairs Minister Augusto Santos Silva announced Oct. 20 from Macau, China. He did not give details, but he emphasized the role which Portugal’s deepwater port on the Atlantic, Sines, can play in the Belt and Road, because of its strategic location for connecting with the continents of Africa, the Americas, and Eurasia. Sines is Europe’s closest port to the now-expanded Panama Canal, he pointed out in making the announcement.
At the same time, Santos Silva announced that President Xi Jinping’s long-planned state visit to Portugal is now set for Dec. 4-5. He did not say whether the MOU will signed during that visit, but Portugal is eager to get to work on the project. Today, in meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Silva Santos emhasized that Portugal “is willing to work with China, ready to further implement China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and become a hub linking Europe and Asia through land and sea,” CGTN reported.
Portugal’s Foreign Minister is visiting China from Oct. 19-23, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Internationalization, and other top officials. Their trip has taken them from Guangdong, to Macau, and now Beijing, where they will meet with Wang Yi, senior diplomat Yang Jiechi from the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC’s Central Committee, and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, and take part in the tenth Joint China-Portugal Economic and Trade Committee Meeting.
Interest is also growing in Portugal’s neighbor, Spain. President Xi Jinping will visit Spain for talks with government officials Nov. 27-28, Spain’s Foreign Ministry announced in September.
July 29 –China will play a major role in the reconstruction of Syria, which nation lies on the New Silk Road, at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, Europe and Africa.
China hasd already pledged $2 billion to invest in Syrian industry last year, and in July announced a further $23 billion in loans and aid for the Arab region, including Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and others.
But there is already a deeper process underway for China to play a significant role in the reconstruction of Syria, which the World Bank estimates could cost $250 billion.
According to {Guangming News} of May 7, 2017, in an article entitled, “China’s First Post-War Reconstruction Conference in Syria,” there were two conferences in Spring 2017, one in Syria, one in China, to work on targetted areas for real growth.
From April 14-21, 2017, at the invitation of the Syrian government, Qin Yong, deputy chairman of the China Arab Exchange Association visited Damascus and Homs in Syria. Qin reported, “We are the first Chinese delegation to visit Syria to discuss post-war reconstruction and have received a high-standard reception from the Syrian authorities.” He cited positively the security and safety in Damascus, Homs, Latakia, and those regions under government contol, “the confidence and enthusiasm of the Syrian government and people for reconstruction,” and “the Syrian government’s and people’s desire to invite Chinese companies to participate in reconstruction is stronger than expected.”
On May 4, 2017, a conference, “Syria’s Security Situation and Reconstruction Opportunities–China Arab Exchange Association’s Visit to Syria,” took place in Beijing, where Qin reported back on his Syria trip, and presented his findings and the reconstruction possibilities. Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Mustafa also spoke, praising China as “the first protagonist for the future reconstruction of Syria.”
The China Arab Exchange Association (which is backed by the China State Council) also issued a series of reconstruction projects in Syria’s infrastructure, electricity, building materials, agriculture, etc. Reportedly as many as 1,000 Chinese companies are involved, including some of the leading Chinese companies in harbor engineering, steel, hydropower, metallurgy, aircraft, and agriculture.
{Guangming Daily} mentioned that concerning Syria, several business representatives have “expressed their willingness to shoulder the glorious mission of the Belt and Road Initative.”
The Russians have ideas for power development in Syria, which could include nuclear power.
July 27, 2018 -Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addressing the BRICS Africa Outreach Session at the BRICS Summit today, said that the African continent “is in huge need of energy investments, and Russia could become one of its key partners…. I would especially like to note that Russia is planning to step up its assistance in development of national energy in African states.”
According to Putin, as reported in RT, Russia is planning oil and gas projects with Angola, Mozambique and Gabon. He said: “In the field of nuclear energy, where Russia is the technological leader, we offer African partners to build an industry from scratch. These projects are crucial for Africa since about 600 million people on the continent live without electricity.”
Putin added that Russian business was also interested in “working with African partners in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, healthcare, the development of mass communications, geology and subsoil use.”
Oct. 21 –The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been building up its loans to fundamental infrastructure investment throughout Asia, during the past 20 weeks.On Sept. 28, the AIIB approved new loans totalling nearly $1 billion to finance projects in Egypt, India, and Turkey. The three loans include the AIIB’s first to the Egyptian government, which consists of a $300 million investment to improve rural sanitation services in the country, co-financed by the World Bank, the bank said on Oct. 19. The Beijing-based bank board of directors also approved a $455 million loan to improve all-weather rural roads in Andhra Pradesh in southeast India; and a loan of up to $200 million to the Industrial Development Bank of Turkey (TSKB) to finance energy projects.
In September, the AIIB said it was considering $541 million in loans for three propposed infrastructure and power projects in Bangladesh, according to BSS news agency. This includes the Mymensingh Kewatkhali Bridge project, which is part of the Dhaka-Mymensingh-India border corridor; the Sylhet to Tamabil Road Upgradation Project; and a power system upgrade and expansion project for the Chittagong region.
In June, the AIIB approved $1.2 billion in loans for infrastructure construction in India.
The AIIB has made about $5.8 billion in loans since its formation in December 2015. The World Bank has about $61 billion in loans outstanding. But the AIIB’s loans have no conditionalities, and are for real development. The AIIB’s development thrust, and buildup in the speed of its lending from a low level represents the direction of a transformation in the world.
